Airbus' A320neo made its maiden flight, with two Pratt & Whitney engines on its wings

A version of Pratt & Whitney's latest commercial engine took its maiden flight Thursday on a new Airbus plane in Toulouse, France.

The blue and white A320neo, a single-aisle aircraft, made its milestone first flight Thursday at noon local time, or 6 a.m. Eastern Time. It climbed to 6,000 feet, then to 26,000 feet, before landing 2 1/2 hours later.

Fabrice Brégier, chief executive of Airbus, said, "A first flight in September 2014, believe it or not, was the initial date and target set."

In addition to a major milestone in the development of the A320neo, the flight Thursday was a message to critics who in recent months had questioned whether Airbus could keep to its testing schedule, some saying the flight could be pushed back into the fourth quarter of 2014. The concerns stemmed from an engine fire on Bombardier's C Series aircraft that grounded the plane briefly.

The Bombardier and Airbus aircraft use variants of the same Pratt & Whitney engine.

A flight test engineer on the maiden flight, Manfred Birnfeld, called the first flight "a small step into a large part of the flight test program. We have a lot of work which we have to accomplish by the end of next year and we will do that."

In all, five aircraft manufacturers have decided to use Pratt & Whitney's PurePower geared turbofan engine for new or redesigned planes, including also Irkut, Embraer and Mitsubishi. The Bombardier C Series was the first to reach first flight in September 2014.

Airlines looking to buy the A320neo have the choice of the Pratt engine or General Electric and Snecma's LEAP engine. Pratt & Whitney, a division of Hartford's United Technologies Corp., is marketing its engine as providing significant improvements in fuel economy and having a fraction of the operating noise.

Tom Enders, chief executive of Airbus Group NV, stood with other executives and the flight crew on a stage in front of the aircraft. Initially, he said, he and others were "skeptical" about the new Pratt engine. Airbus tested the PurePower engine one year later, in 2011, and found that the "engine is special," Enders said.

Airbus has more than 3,200 orders for the twin-engine aircraft from 60 customers, Airbus' Brégier said. Those orders are split between the two engine companies.

The A320neo, for "new engine option," also contains components from Windsor Lock's UTC Aerospace Systems, the combination of the former Hamilton Sunstrand and Goodrich, which United Technologies purchased in 2012 for $16.5 billion.

The Airbus first flight is especially important for East Hartford-based Pratt & Whitney because it is so far the largest platform for its greared turbofan engines.

In a statement, Pratt & Whitney President Paul Adams said: "The A320neo equipped with our engine will set a new standard for narrowbody efficiency and economics. We are proud that our PurePower engine is on track to enable the A320neo to achieve best in class performance and value to our customers at entry into service."

The plane that flew Thursday rolled out of the factory in July, and the line of aircraft is expected to enter into service at the end of next year.